Denys wrote the previously crippleware C64 emulator, BreadBox64. It has recently been made available with no restrictions (though it remains shareware) and provides a very much faster alternative to Frodo. Note, some of Denys' replies have been amended by myself at his request to improve the (already very good) English.
Where do you live?
I was born 1972 in Versmold (Nordrhein Westfalen) Germany and lived here since that time. I may move to Osnabrueck as soon as possible but I will still be able to be reached via my old address.
Are there many Acorn users in Germany?
There could be even more, but here in Versmold (a "village" of 20,000 people) there are about 3 or 4 people who own an Acorn. All in all I think there are perhaps 12000-15000 Acorn users in Germany, compared to millions of PC users it's almost nothing! Most of the users are students and it seems (mostly) they have rich parents!?
Did you used to own a C64?
YES of course!!! I got my first C64 when I was 12 and started coding on it when I was about 14. After joining and forming several groups I made a game called "PLIS" which became the "listing of the month" in 1993. By the way, the title-music (by Stello Doussis) is now one of the best 10 sounds ever made on C64 - several people say! (You may download my SID-player with his sounds from the a/ware homepage). At the same time I bought an A3000 to get an alternative machine to my AMIGA (which I got very very cheap - fell off the back of a lorry... he, he, he... ;o). Then I made simple tools like transmitting data from the C64 to my Archie and so on. At this time I hadn't heard about other Acorn users and got some PD stuff from my "local" dealer (about 30 km away). Due to a demo from the "Archiebrothers" I got in contact with freax - I formed the Acorn-division of "Adept". After two demos (the last one was the CeBIT'94-demo) I formed daydream software and started coding my SID-player, first released at the CeBIT'95.
Why did you start writing BreadBox64?
After some rumours said I was working on a C64 emulation (due to my SID-player) I announced that I wasn't interested because Mathias Seifert (evolution software/Germany) is working on that. Mathias was something like Manfred Trenz (Turrican C64) for me and this project seemed to be in good hands. A short time later Mathias contacted me for my Painting-program (Paintcan) and he said he stopped development on his C64 emulation, because he didn't want to support the whole range of Acorn machines (he always codes very, very straight to the hardware). He also said that my SID-emulation is better than his own and suggested I made a complete emulation because there was only the VIC-emulation needing to be added to my SID-player. So I started coding on that at the beginning of 1996 before my "alternative national service" started. (alternative = instead of going to the army, we could choose an alternative job in a national institution e.g. hospitals or boarding-schools). I released the first version at the end of 1996 through "pulse computer/Germany" who was also responsible for distributing "Blax" and "Paintcan".
What kept you developing the program to near completion?
Seeing more and more old classic games run on it was the great incentive for me. I learned much about the C64 during this time - you could do such nice things on it when you know how the chips are working. I wish I could be back in the past... Multiplexer are so easy!
What was the most enjoyable part of writing bbox64?
The Sound-emulation! I like the sliding and phasing of the sounds... Also the Video-emulation was very interesting - seeing more and more run on it!
Why the perculiar name?
In Germany the C64 got the nickname "Brotkasten" which became "BreadBox" in english, because it looks like a box you get the fresh bread in... :) Also it was planned to release it in a small "bread (or sandwich)-box" like little kids get for school!
Have you been disappointed at the number of people registering?
No... I don't know how many people have registered, because "pulse computer" handled all the distribution. So I haven't got any money for it - it wasn't my intention to make financial gain in the first place. I gave the rights to "pulse" due to the flop we had with my Paintcan, and instead of money I get something else from him - some times support for my projects, at other time an ethernet-controller! All in all, everything was a financial loss for us.
Which emulator do you prefer using yours, or Frodo?
Normally the BreadBox - you need to have a StrongARM for Frodo to get it work. I have one, but the emulation doesn't reach 100%. BreadBox reaches 100% and more with an ARM700 - also the sound is much better.
Why did you stop developing bbox64?
Due to my "national service" I had too little time to do more to it. Andreas Dehmel made a patch for it - so some bugs became a low. I asked him if he was interested in continuing the project, the answer was he had just ported Frodo to the Acorn and so wasn't interested. :( Due to the high-quality-emulation (even though much slower than BreadBox) I lost my interest in supporting BreadBox any longer. Also there was some other things I had to do before, like Paintcan II. Development may never have stopped at all, but I have to many projects to do on other platforms and so haven't enough time for all of it! :(
Have you considered continuing with the project?
Yes, but I'm still disappointed about Acorn and their releases. The new Phoebe may be a great machine, but compared to the PC-market, it's too expensive and at the release date antiquated! (I may buy it anyway...;) Maybe I will release the source to people who ask for it!?
What's your favourite game on the C64?
I never played much with my computers - it was more interesting to know how it works for me. However, I liked strategic games and of course the best game ever made on C64: Turrican! I also played Elite and Paradroid a lot of time.
Do you think it's worth writing emulators for old 8bit systems when SNES and arcade emulators are taking over?
Why not? Emulators are not for profit - they're for enthusiasts! Why should I play emulated games for machines I've never seen? Buy a PlayStation now! Sometimes it's also interesting seeing the current "state of the art" on the C64, the machine nearly everybody got in the past!
(Note from David: I think the irony is lost in translation and my ammendments here, where the appropriate phrase for "state of the art" in German, directly translates to "art of time".)
Do you use any other emulators?
Not really. Sometimes I startup some emulations to compare it with the PC-standard. I don't really like emulations... They're not useful at all and mostly too slow for real use! Also I don't like Java, but people want it, so they will get it and I may start coding in Java at some time!? Only a realtime-emulation of an SGI-Onyx or PowerChallenge may be a bit more useful... :)
What sort of response have you have from other Acorn users?
Normally they're happy to get some new products - there are too few people developing good products for the Acorn. On the other hand the response is very low. I may be unknown to most people, I think. I don't know if I'm well known outside Germany and if not, why are so few people contacting me?
Is there any chance of continued development?
There may be a little chance if I would get more feedback. Although I'm currently out of time, I planned some other products for the Acorn.
Anything you'd like to say?
Yes, I want to say thank you to all those who developed nice applications on the Arc - keep on coding, guys!